"How did you end up here?"

I’m typing this on my flight from Minneapolis (layover from Anchorage) to Phoenix to visit home for the first time since my big move! It’s a shame that I can’t sleep when I travel because I worked Tuesday night to Wednesday morning, went home to finish packing, then spent time with Cory before he dropped me off at the airport at 11am. Besides dozing off here and there during the first 4 hour flight, I’ve been awake for 27 hours and counting. I just cannot get comfortable enough to sleep sitting up no matter how tired I am. 2 more hours of this flight left. Good thing I’m on vacation!   Never thought I’d be vacationing in Phoenix and looking forward to summer heat! This is the best part of summer for Phoenix though. Thunderstorms and heavy rain that drop the high to a cool 90 something degrees. Although, 60 feels pretty warm to me now. I haven’t felt anything above 85 since May. My fear is that I’m gonna miss the brief fall period in Anchorage and it’ll already be winter when...

Have you ever been so focused on learning something new that you long for something familiar that you're already good at? I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Although I'm getting better at this craft of nursing, I'm still insecure most of the time and constantly striving to keep up with my peers (I can officially take on 5 patients all by myself now, by the way). Even in my free time, the hobby I've chosen to pick up is teaching myself to play guitar. I've barely started and I know this is something that take LOTS of time and practice, but again, it's discouraging at times and much more easily said than done. It's time to do something I'm already good at. Something confidence-boosting that comes naturally. Like singing. This is something that has always been a part of me that I've done my whole life with ease. For the first time, I don't have an outlet for it besides busting out to iTunes in the car. I miss making music with others ...

Hello again! I always find it hard to start off a post by saying something other than "It's been a while since my last post." So...I'll work on that. Any who, I'll just pick where I left off. Work update: feeling much better! That first night was by far the roughest. The following week was a little easier since I only had 3 patients, but they were still difficult. I had lots of help throughout the night but stayed about an hour and a half after each shift to finish charting. It helped to work with one of my preceptors who reminded me that every single nurse started out this way, it will get easier, and I'm doing a good job. I'm so thankful for coworkers who don't "eat their young" like many nurses do. This past week was the smoothest yet since I worked on the med/surge floor with more stable patients. By the third night, I took care of my 4 patients pretty much on my own AND finished my charting by 8am this morning! I felt very accomplish...